Winemaker Notes
Blend: 80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Ripe dark berries are closely intertwined with spicy fresh cedary oak, leading to a palate with a bold, fleshy core of dark-berry flavors. Fine, taut tannins. Try from 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
An unusual blend for the Médoc of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, this wine comes from a Rothschild vineyard next door to its Château Clarke. The wine is balanced, richly perfumed and spicy with swathes of black-currant fruit and ripe tannins. Developing slowly, the wine needs some time. Drink from 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Château Malmaison has a straightforward, red cherry and strawberry-scented bouquet with cassis developing in the glass. It comes across as a little smudged compared to its peers. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe tannin, crisp acidity and a pleasant salinity, the finish showing more pedigree than the aromatics at the moment. It should meliorate during élevage and evolve into a useful little Moulis.
Barrel Sample: 88-90
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
One of the six appellations of the Haut-Medoc, Moulis has a rolling landscape with considerable soil variations. With its mix of gravel, clay and limestone, Moulis offers some of the more enticingly perfumed Bordeaux Blends of the Left Bank.